I-deals are a key method for organizations to retain and motivate employees, yet little research has investigated employee motivations for seeking i-deals and antecedents to request and receipt. We examine these largely invisible antecedents of i-deals in the context of older workers, a cohort of increasing importance in the workplace. Through thematic analysis of 82 in-depth interviews with Australian workers over the age of 50, we develop a model of i-deal emergence that delineates the motivation, request, and receipt stages of i-deals. We identified four motivational influences to seek i-deals: to improve work–life balance, to repair psychological contract breach, and to craft satisfactory retirement pathways; high levels of existing job-role autonomy acted as a demotivator to request i-deals. We also identified three factors associated with an i-deal request being granted: an older worker’s value to the organization, positive employee–manager relationships, and emphasis of mutual benefit for employee and employer. We identified a novel antecedent for i-deals: feasibility—an older worker’s perception of how likely they are to be successful when requesting a desired i-deal. Feasibility perceptions are informed by organizational practices and policies around i-deals, co-worker i-deal experiences, and job-role constraints. Feasibility can influence an employee’s decisions to request an i-deal and also directly affect attitudes toward the employer, regardless of whether an i-deal is present, desired, or otherwise. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed and future directions outlined.

Are late careers worth studying in their own right? The way we think and reason about older workers and late careers—in scholarship and in practice—has been disproportionately informed by a research paradigm that focuses on age differences among employees, which captures how older workers on average differ from younger workers on average. While this contrastive paradigm has been generative, it can also inaccurately portray older workers as a static, homogenous group. In contrast, older workers show considerable heterogeneity (older workers vary), meaningful dynamics (older workers change), and dynamic heterogeneity (older workers vary in how they change). In this paper, we propose that the contrastive paradigm be complemented with a centered paradigm that centers on how older workers vary and change. We develop a theoretical model of how older worker dynamics and older worker heterogeneity shape the quality of their employment relationship—in terms of psychological contracts—which in turn shape their career trajectories and work role enactment. By centering this line of research on older workers, we gain a higher-resolution view of these late careers as unfolding over time and varying among older workers.

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